The present invention provides, in one aspect, disposable trunks-type pants designed so that a space surrounding the wearer""s torso and thighs can be easily formed and thereby good feeling to wear the pants can be correspondingly ensured. In another aspect, the present invention provides a process for making such pants with a high productivity per unit hour.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 1994-63072A discloses disposable pants trunks-type basically comprising separately prepared front and rear bodies. These front and rear bodies are provided in regions thereof defining a crotch region with a bonding line curving so as to be convex toward a waist line and the inner side of the crotch region is provided with a liquid-absorbent panel which is relatively long in back-and-forth direction of the pants. The pants disclosed therein is said to be advantageous in that body excretion can be effectively absorbed in the crotch region by the liquid-absorbent panel attached to this crotch region.
However, the pants disclosed in the above-cited Application comprises the front and rear bodies flatly placed upon each other, so the wearer""s torso and thighs would forcibly form a space within the pants when the pants are worn. In addition, the liquid-absorbent panel which is relatively long in the back-and-forth direction and has a desired width dimension is horizontally attached to the inner surface of the crotch region. Consequently, transversely opposite side edge portions of the panel may be intensely pressed against the wearer""s skin and deteriorate feeling to wear the pants as the panel is compressed between the wearer""s thighs.
In view of these problems as have been described above, an object of this invention is to provide, in one aspect, disposable pants of trunks-type improved so that a space surrounding the wearer""s torso and thighs can be easily formed and thereby good feeling to wear the pants can be correspondingly ensured and, in another aspect, is to provide a process for making such pants with an improved productivity per unit hour.
According to one aspect of this invention, trunks-type disposable pants are provided which have a waist-opening at upper part and a pair of leg-openings at lower part thereof wherein a peripheral edge portions of the waist-opening is elastically stretchable in a circumferential direction of the waist-opening.
According to this invention, the pants comprise a pair of outer sheets arranged in plane-symmetry relationship with each other and a single inner sheet folded along a transverse center line extending in back-and-forth direction of the pants so that its outer surface is put flat together and disposed between lower parts of the outer sheets, the outer sheets respectively have upper and lower end portions extending in parallel to the transverse center line of the inner sheet in the transverse direction and front and rear side edge portions extending in a longitudinal direction orthogonal to the transverse center line, and the inner sheet has lower end portions extending in the transverse direction below the transverse center line, front and rear side edge portions extending in the longitudinal direction and a liquid-absorbent panel bonded to an inner surface of the inner sheet and extending downward from the transverse center line toward the lower end portions, and the outer sheets respectively have their inner surfaces bonded to each other in the vicinity of upper portions of the front and rear side edge portions of the outer sheets while the inner sheet has its inner surface bonded to the inner surfaces of the outer sheets in the vicinity of lower portions of the front and rear side edge portions of the outer sheets as well as in the vicinity of the front and rear side edge portions of the inner sheet.
According to another embodiment of this invention, the outer sheets and/or the inner sheet are formed of a hydrophobic nonwoven fabric being elastically stretchable in the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction, at least in the transverse direction.
According to another aspect of this invention, a process for making a trunks-type disposable pants is provided which comprises the steps of:
(a) feeding forward in a longitudinal direction a single continuous inner sheet having transversely opposite side edge portions extending in parallel to each other in the longitudinal direction and an imaginary fold line extending in the longitudinal direction to bisect a dimension between the transversely opposite side edge portions and simultaneously attaching liquid-absorbent panels to an inner surface of the inner sheet in respective bonding regions defined on the inner surface of the inner sheet in the vicinity of the fold line at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction,
(b) folding the inner sheet along the fold line so that outer surface of the inner sheet is placed upon itself,
(c) feeding forward in the longitudinal direction a pair of outer sheets each having transversely opposite side edge portions, a first elastic member bonded with tension to this outer sheet in the vicinity of one of the transversely opposite side edge portions so as to extend in the longitudinal direction and an imaginary center line extending in the longitudinal direction to bisect a dimension between the transversely opposite side edge portions and placing the outer sheet upon the inner surface of the inner sheet with the fold line of the inner sheet put in coincidence with the center lines of the outer sheets and the side edge portion provided with the first elastic members laid in the vicinity of the transverely opposite side edge portions of the inner sheet,
(d) bonding the inner surface of the inner sheet to the inner surfaces of the outer sheets in first bonding regions each extending in a transverse direction immediately in front and behind the associated panel in the longitudinal direction and bonding the inner surfaces of the outer sheets to each other in the first bonding regions with the first elastic members being maintained under tension, and
(e) cutting the inner sheet and the outer sheets along each pair of adjacent cutting lines extending in the transverse direction immediately in front and behind the associated panel in the longitudinal direction with these sheets being maintained bonded together in the first bonding region.
According to an alternative embodiment of the process, the step (a) or the step (b) includes the steps of feeding forward in the longitudinal direction a pair of continuous liquid-resistant side sheets each having transversely opposite side edge portions extending in parallel to each other in the longitudinal direction, one on the transversely opposite side edge portions having a second elastic member bonded with tension thereto so as to extend in the longitudinal direction with the one of the transversely opposite side edge portions laid in the vicinity of the fold line of the inner sheet, bonding the other of the transversely opposite side edges to the inner surface of the inner sheet extending between the lower end portions of the inner sheet and the panel with the second elastic members being maintained under tension, and bonding the side sheets to the inner surface of the inner sheet in second bonding regions extending in the transverse direction immediately in front and behind the panel in said longitudinal direction, and wherein the step (e) includes a step of cutting the inner sheet, the outer sheets and the side sheets together along the cutting lines with these sheets being maintained bonded in the first bonding regions as well as in the second bonding regions.